Books

1838. London: Richard Bentley, 1838. 3 vols. Original cloth, yellow endpapers, backstrip titled in gilt with Bentley imprint also in gilt. Very good copy with some areas of sun fading and spotting to the cloth and plates foxed as usual. Neat early name on front pastedown in each vol. § First edition in original cloth, with the title page credited to “Boz” rather than Dickens, and with the Fireside plate facing p. 312 in volume three. The first edition of Oliver Twist in original cloth is a cornerstone in any Dickens collection. Publication of the serial in Bentley’s Miscellany began in 1837, and “when Bentley decided to publish Oliver Twist in book form before its completion in his periodical, Cruikshank was forced to complete the last few plates in haste. Dickens did not review them until the eve of publication and objected to the “Fireside” plate...and also disliked having “Boz” on the titlepage. He voiced these objections prior to the publication and the plate…

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger', a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.